Tally Ho!

Day 1:  St. Bees to Ennerdale Bridge

After leaving Abbey Farm, our lovely bed and breakfast in St. Bees, we were ready to head for the coast.  Since we've been here we've learned that distance means something entirely different than what it does to us.  Steve, our host at the B & B told us that the coast was just up the road.  A little over a mile later, we were there. Unfortunately, it was low tide so we had quite a walk down to the water for the traditional C2C rituals:  dipping our our boots into the Irish Sea and picking up a pebble to carry to the North Sea (I got a VERY small stone!).

Then we were off.  The walk starts with a climb up to a ridge and the first few miles follows a path along the Irish Sea coast.  We were blessed with an absolutely gorgeous day; temperature around 60, sunny and nearly cloudless.  Just beautiful.

After leaving the coast we walked through the little town of Sandwith, then onto Moor Row and Cleator. We met up with a German fellow who seemed to have as much trouble finding the route as we did.  The C2C is not a national trail so it is not way-marked. We have a book with hand-drawn directions, a map and GPS but it is still easy to lose the way. We walked with him for awhile, then he went on ahead of us.

It seemed we were walking at a pretty fast pace, but we still had about three miles to go to Ennerdale Bridge.  We hadn't stopped for lunch, were tired, thirsty and getting worried about running out of daylight. We asked someone in Moor Row about a tea shop or pub that might be open and he directed us to a hotel pub a couple of miles down the road past Cleator.  We stopped in and the young woman at the front desk said they weren't serving meals at that time (typically pubs here serve from about noon-3 and then from 6-9). We said we were just looking for a beer so she cheerfully opened the bar and served us a pint.

After this little break we made our way the last couple of miles to Ennerdale Bridge--by cab!  Our guide book said it was a 14 mile day and both our Fitbits showed over 14 miles so we didn't quibble about how we got the miles!

As we checked in at The Shepherd's Arms the proprietor told us she had some bad news about our bags.  They were not to be delivered until the following morning. What a disappointment.  We knew there would be a lot of hill climbing and it would be extremely difficult without our hiking poles.

Luckily the pub was right inside the hotel so we didn't have to go out for dinner. After a nice meal and a couple of beers we collapsed into bed.

A few more pictures from the first day's walk.